Distinction Bias: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices

By understanding our cognitive quirks, we can outsmart our own brains.

There I was, looking at an enormous wall of television screens. Each one flashed the exact same scene — a beautiful flower slowly blooming to reveal each petal, pistil, and stamen in exquisite, super-high-definition detail. It was downright sexy. But now it was time to make my choice.

Would I buy the $400 television within my budget, or would I splurge on the $500 deluxe model that somehow helped me understand plant biology in a new, more intimate way?

Though every cone and rod in my eyeballs begged me to buy the better one, my more sensible instinct kicked in: “Your budget is $400, remember?” Sighing, I bought the crappy model and braced for a life of media mediocrity.

Source: NirandFar

But then, a strange thing happened. When I fired up the new set at home, it looked fine. Better than fine, in fact. It looked great! I couldn’t figure out why I even wanted the pricier model in the first place.

Despite the fact people chose freely and presumably wanted to maximize their happiness, those who opted to think of a negative memory for more chocolate were significantly less happy than those who chose a positive memory for less chocolate. And, lest you think the effect might be a result of feeling guilty for eating fattening chocolate, the researchers thought about that too. Yet, they found no significant difference between the two groups when it came to feelings about eating the candies. So what gives?

Your Brain Isn’t That Smart

Psychologists believe we are in two different modes when we compare options versus when we experience them. When making a choice, we are in comparison mode — sensitive to small differences between options, like me choosing a television. But when we live out our decisions, we are in experience mode — there are no other options to compare our experience to.

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In comparison mode, we’re pretty good at deciding between qualitative differences. For example, we know that an interesting job is better than a boring one, or that being able to walk to work is better than having to suffer driving in rush-hour traffic.

When I asked you to pick between options 1 and 2, you likely could have told me recalling a personal success story would feel better than recalling a failure. So why do people choose option 2? For more chocolates, of course! And that’s where things get sticky: Humans are not very good at predicting how quantitative differences — those involving numbers — affect happiness. In the experiment, people assumed three Hershey Kisses would bring them three times the happiness. But it didn’t.

We make the same mistake in real life all the time. We think a 1,200-square-foot home will make us happier than a 1,000-square-foot home. We think that earning $70,000 a year will make us happier than earning $60,000 a year.

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We often place a higher emphasis on inconsequential quantitative differences and pick an option that won’t actually maximize our happiness.

How to Outsmart Your Brain

1. Don’t compare options side by side.

In comparison mode, we end up spending too much time playing “spot the difference.” This is where we run into trouble and focus too much on inconsequential quantitative differences. To combat this, avoid comparing two options side by side.

What can we do instead? Evaluate each choice individually and on its own merit.

If you are buying a house, don’t compare one with another. Spend time at each house focusing only on what you like and dislike about that house to form a holistic impression of it. That includes everything from the size of the house, your commute, how close your friends live, and its warmth and coziness all the way down to how weird the neighbors are.

Now, choose the house that registers the best overall holistic experience.

2. Know your “must-haves” before you look.

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Clever marketers often use distinction bias to trick us into paying more for things we don’t actually need and won’t make us any happier!

So next time, defend yourself by writing down what really matters before you shop. Write down your must-have reasons why you’re buying the item. Then, once those conditions are met, you’ll be free to pick the cheapest option that has your requirements without getting suckered into features you don’t really need.

3. Optimize for things you can’t get used to.

Researchers believe that we fall victim to distinction bias when we underestimate our tendency to return to a baseline level of happiness over time — this tendency is known as “hedonic adaptation.” Despite thinking we’ll live happily ever after, a higher income or a bigger house doesn’t make us happier for very long.

As a rule of thumb, your happiness will adjust back after a change in anything that is typically stable and certain, like your income, the size of your house, or the quality of your TV. On the other hand, infrequent or uncertain positive events, like quality time with friends or an exciting road trip, occur too sporadically to get used to. Inserting more of these hard-to-adapt-to experiences in your life could create longer-lasting happiness.

When our species first evolved, picking the ripest fruit on the bush or selecting the right animal from the herd served us well. Today, however, the same shortcut that helped us survive can get us into trouble. Instead of optimizing for what will make us happier in the long term, we play “spot the difference” regarding attributes that don’t matter much. Though savvy marketers can use this bias to sell us stuff that may not make us better off, there’s no reason we have to keep falling for their tricks. After all, the trick is in our own heads. By understanding our cognitive quirks, like distinction bias, we can outsmart our own brains.

After finishing this article, i feel confusing my decision but i stii have confidence.

About 7 hours ago, i went a clothing shop for buying my friends' clothes for their birth day gifts and mine. At first, i bought my friends' shirts.
Then, there were only two options left. First one was a lovely long black thin coat for spring and autumn, it was really beautiful. Another one was a short jacket, it looked really functional and nice. However, my budget allowed me to buy only one. Personally, i wanted to buy both. However, my budget was limited as like you. So, after long thought with some sweet whispering and luring from a shop keeper, i bought later one. In that time, i thought i was wise choice. After 3 hours later, i wised i bought a coat. After another 3 hours, as wearing my new cloth, i felt it was so lovely and functional. Now, i saw a person wearing a black coat. Well, now i am thinking that my choice is really wise. It's because, i don't want someone wearing same cloth like mine. And now, i am seeing my cloth again. Now i have to get back to work.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Outsmarting your own brain is perhaps the silliest thing I have read here so far, and it has some stiff competition. If you have to trick your own brain to function as you want then you have already lost the battle. You are fooling yourself yet pretending you are not fooling yourself, a double delusion. Your brain will always have the last laugh whatever you do.

Because I have come to grips with personal failures and thinking about them does not cause me harm nor unhappiness. I can well afford a moment of unhappiness for three chocolates (which do not have to be eaten right away, they can be saved for a later date).

Additionally, I tend not to think about happiness, which seems a poor way to describe the state of a person over the long haul. I instead focus on satisfaction, which seems more germane.

Since my life is satisfactory, I can think of past events that did not come out as expected and it will not impact my general satisfaction level. Happiness is fleeting and quite unreliable, and satisfaction is a far more valuable way to measure.

Cognitive biases are so fascinating. They can have such a large impact but most of us aren't even aware of them when it comes to making decisions. The frustrating thing is that even when you are aware of them, moving past them is pretty difficult.